UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Eric J. Barron, president of Penn State, will deliver the commencement address for the College of Earth and Mineral Sciences’ baccalaureate degree commencement ceremony, scheduled for 1 p.m. on Saturday, May 7, in the Pegula Ice Arena on Penn State's University Park campus.
Barron was named the 18th president of Penn State by the University’s Board of Trustees on February 17, 2014, and his tenure as president will conclude on May 8, 2022. President-elect Neeli Bendapudi will assume the office on May 9.
“We are honored to have Eric as this year’s commencement speaker,” said Lee Kump, John Leone Dean in the College of Earth and Mineral Sciences. “Our college is where Eric started his career at Penn State, and it is where he established his lifelong commitment to student success. We strive to sustain that legacy and are thus excited for our graduating students to benefit from his wisdom this one last time.”
Barron spent 20 years of his career at Penn State, serving as dean of the College of Earth and Mineral Sciences from 2002 to 2006, and as founding director of the Earth System Science Center, one of the first major initiatives focused on the total study of Earth as a system, from 1986 to 2002. He also had a simultaneous appointment as director of the Earth and Mineral Sciences Environment Institute from 1998 to 2002. In 1999, he was named distinguished professor of geosciences at Penn State.
Barron returned to Penn State from the helm at Florida State, bringing with him nearly 35 years of leadership experience in academic administration, education, research, and public service, and a track record as a talented manager of fiscal policy within large and complex institutions.
An accomplished scientist with a long background in atmospheric research, Barron served as director of the National Center for Atmospheric Research from 2008 to 2010 and as dean of the Jackson School of Geosciences at the University of Texas at Austin from 2006 to 2008. Early in his career he was a postdoctoral research fellow and scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado, a federal research center focusing on atmospheric and related science issues. He originally worked at NCAR as a postdoctoral fellow from 1981 to 1985 and served for one year on the faculty at the University of Miami before joining Penn State.
Barron earned his bachelor’s degree in geology from Florida State University in 1973, his master’s and doctoral degrees in oceanography, in 1976 and 1980, respectively, from the University of Miami.